Amentia

Chapter 25 - Looking daggers

They heard the movement of civilization before they saw it. All except Zoe, at least, who felt it through her feet first. The rain had died down to a drizzle, so the sounds were clear. Footsteps, chatting, cart wheels rolling, and things rattling on the moving carts. It sounded a lot like the village they had escaped from, although a bit louder and less psychopathic.

The first thing the girls noticed as they got closer to the town was the bridge. It was really hard to miss, on account of its size and color. Connecting the northern and southern sides of the Crossing River was a tall and wide bridge made of stone the color of emerald. The actual structure of the bridge was nothing special; there weren't statues on top of the columns or intricate carvings on the railings that ran on both sides. And yet the bridge stood like a majestic work of art, glowing like a gemstone in that blue-green color despite the lack of sunshine. The blueish hue made a strange contrast to the purple of the trees; both colors didn't quite match with each other, but that's what made it stand out on its own.

The second thing the girls noticed was the most obvious one: the people walking on the bridge, going both north and south of the river. They walked in straight lines, as if there were lanes and an implicit rule which stated that those who were going north walked on the left side and those going south back into town walked on the right side.

The girls watched them pass by, trying not to stare too much since they all looked so alien from their perspective. They saw skins of four different colors (the orange and dark green they'd seen before, plus pearl-white and dark purple), some had horns of different lengths on their heads, others had wings of different sizes and color patterns (either with feathers like a bird or colorful hair like a butterfly), and others had fur or scales over their skin. But, much like the Keeper of the Temple, they all walked on two legs and had two arms.

They didn't seem to mind the rain and made no attempts of keeping it off them; they walked energetically and chatted amongst themselves as if it were a regular day. It was clear they'd done this a million times before, that this was routine. However, the sight of a group of human girls seemed to break that routine and surprise most of them; some even slowed down their pace to look at them as they walked by.

Amentians and humans stared at each other from a short distance with the same expression of confusion mixed with intrigue and amazement. The girls knew why they were staring, but why were those people staring back? Had they never seen a human before? There was a whole village full of them just a couple of days away.

So they all stared at each other back and forth until the surprise wore off for both groups. The girls came to their senses and resumed walking. They turned right, away from the river, when they reached the procession of workers. They heard whispers and gossip clearly directed at them as they passed by the line that was headed in their opposite direction. The ones going back into town walked by faster to leave them behind and talk more freely, though not without turning their heads to take a peek at them as they whispered among themselves.

The girls looked at each other under the umbrellas, all with similar expressions of discomfort. Between the pile of corpses they had found earlier and now all the whispering and bad looks, they were not exactly eager to walk into town.

"I told you we shouldn't have come," said Nina, who was looking paler than usual from the long hours of having to keep the umbrellas up.

Soon enough, thankfully, the rain became so light that the umbrellas were practically useless, so Nina decided to take them back, much to her relief. Zoe gave her the last sip of water they had because she looked like she would faint in any moment.

Suddenly the trees opened up and the girls found themselves walking on cobblestones. They saw they were on a street wide enough for at least four big carts to pass by next to each other. The place was huge, like a small city but without all the concrete. All the houses and stores were made of thick wood, with an occasional one made of gray stone. Unlike the human village, this place had streets and corners, and all the buildings stood next to each other instead of far apart. It was heavily populated.